Places

Date: 15 Feb 1998

From: Haast oral history project

By: Hill, Ruth Ida, 1907-2006

Reference: OHInt-0419/08

Description: Ruby Hill was born at Okuru in 1907. Describes how her father came from Germany to Australia and then the West Coast and worked on roadworks round the district. Describes the death of one brother during World War I and another from drowning. Recalls Christmas, Sundays, children's games, discipline, entertainment, music, fishing, schooling, visiting neighbours and horse riding. Mentions having to ferry people across the river to their place and riding to Jacksons Bay. Recalls Arawata Bill. Gives details of food preparation and her mother's hard work. Comments on the isolation. Describes how it took eight days to drive the cattle to market at Whataroa. Recalls getting all her teeth pulled out by the dentist when she was about ten. Describes how her mother had one of her children half way between Waiatoto and Okuru on the side of the track. Talks about her mother's death from appendicitis and the doctor's attempt to perform surgery on her at home. Recalls how she and her sister Grace left home to go to work. Discusses how they felt about leaving the district, her work at Seaview Hospital, Hokitika and working in a number of hotels. Describes meeting her husband and moving to Sutters Creek near Ngahere where her husband cut silver pine for the mining industry. Describes stores and the hall in the Haast district, sports days and the dance afterwards. Talks about her brothers Charlie and Dick Eggeling. Mentions Dick Eggeling was the postmaster for a time and Charlie and Betty Eggeling started the motor camp. Comments on Okuru as a place to grow up. Recalls the Cuttance Family. Interviewer(s) - Julia Bradshaw Quantity: 2 C60 cassette(s). 1 printed abstract(s). 1 interview(s). 1.30 Hours and minutes Duration. Finding Aids: Abstract Available - abstracting complete OHA-2902.

Date: 20 Oct 1998

From: Tongariro Forest oral history project

By: Smith, Kevin David, 1953-

Reference: OHInt-0425/8

Description: Kevin Smith was born in Taumarunui in 1953. Describes going to Owhango Primary School and Taumarunui High School. Mentions his father, Bluey Smith, worked as a bushman and bush boss for Dominion Timber Company from the 1920s to the 1950s. Recalls exploring the forest as a child, working there with his father and deer hunting as a teenager. Talks about his early interest in conservation as the result of a road being built through Ohinetonga Reserve. Describes studying botany and then forestry at university, beginning his PhD on the West Coast and deciding to campaign to protect the native forest instead of finishing his thesis. Describes living in Harihari for fourteen years and working for Native Forests Action Council with Gerry McSweeney and Guy Salmon. Discusses damage to the Tongariro Forest. Mentions goats, other pests and the creation of poor farmland by the Department of Lands and Survey in the southern part of the forest. Comments on the use of red beech for fence posts. Describes writing an ecological report for Forest and Bird. Talks about community support for saving the Tongariro Forest and involvement from the Outdoor Pursuits Centre and Mangatepopo School. Comments on unique forest communities and mentions Waimarino Plateau. Explains the difference in attitude between communities in south Westland and Owhango in terms of their local forests. Discusses the start of the Tokaanu Power Scheme and the destruction of the headwaters of the Whanganui and Whakapapa Rivers. Mentions damage to the blue duck and the wider ecosystem. Discusses mountain biking and the need for wider recreational use in the Forest. Interviewer(s) - Jonathan Kennett Quantity: 2 C60 cassette(s). 1 printed abstract(s). 1 interview(s). 1.30 Hours and minutes Duration. Finding Aids: Abstract Available - abstracting complete OHA-2962. Black and white colour photo of Kevin Smith Search dates: 1998

Date: 8 Oct 1998 - 08 Oct 1998

From: Tongariro Forest oral history project

By: Green, Paul Montague, 1944-

Reference: OHInt-0425/5

Description: Paul Green was born in Wellington in 1944. Describes education at Te Aro Primary School and Wellington College. Talks about his love of tramping and climbing and climbing in New Zealand and South America. Recalls his first day as a ranger at Ohakune. Describes working for Lands and Survey and becoming senior ranger at Whakapapa. Discusses the turning of wetlands into farmland by the Department of Lands and Survey. Comments on the beginning of involvement in managing Tongariro Forest in 1987 when boundaries were drawn. Recalls the political pressure to have the Department of Conservation (DOC) established in 1987 and the political goals in creating the Department. Talks about controlling pinus contorta and goats. Describes the land administered by DOC from Whakapapa and later from Turangi as the Tongariro Taupo Conservancy. Gives a history of Whakapapa Village. Comments on the importance of pest control, possum control by 1080 poison and trapping and efforts to increase the presence of the brown kiwi in the Tongariro Forest. Gives a history of huts in the Forest and discusses the need to balance the conflict between conservation and tourism. Discusses the cessation of trips to the Ruapehu crater lake. Mentions local iwi. Recalls the beginnings of the Outdoor Pursuit Centre and its growth. Describes involvement with Search and Rescue. Discusses the development of a Conservation Management Strategy and a Treaty of Waitangi claim against it by Ngati Tuwharetoa. Explains DOC involvement in efforts to reduce the amount of water ECNZ diverted from the Whanganui and Whakapapa Rivers. Describes recreation and conservation issues in the campaign. Comments on the relationship between DOC and ECNZ. Comments on changes in the Forest in two decades and mentions highlights including the release of kiwi in the Forest and going through the Mangatepopo Gorge. Interviewer(s) - Jonathan Kennett Quantity: 2 C60 cassette(s). 1 printed abstract(s) OHA-2959. 1 interview(s). 2 Hours Duration. Finding Aids: Abstract Available - abstracting complete. Colour photo of Paul Green

Date: 10 Sep 1998

From: Tongariro Forest oral history project

By: Chapple, Keith Robert, 1943-

Reference: OHInt-0425/1

Description: Keith Chapple was born in London in 1943. Describes how his parents were killed during World War II and he grew up in Surrey. Mentions his university qualification in political science and philosophy, involvement in the anti-nuclear campaign and CND, moving to New Zealand in 1967 and various jobs. Recalls moving from Auckland to Kakahi and his first involvement in New Zealand in a conservation battle with a group, Friends of the River of Kakahi Society (FORKS) in 1981. Describes the community of Kakahi when it had several timber mills. Comments on milling in the Tongariro Forest when he arrived in the area. Describes a visit by Gerry McSweeney and Kevin Smith from Forest and Bird surveying the forest and a public meeting in 1983 planning the campaign to save the Tongariro Forest. Mentions widespread and diverse support from deer hunters, fishermen, walker and water supply advocates and the formation of the Tongariro Forest Park Promotion Committee with its aim of forming a forest park. Mentions the promotion of recreational activities and use of the Forest by the Outdoor Pursuit(s) Centre Discusses the moratorium placed on logging in 1983 and the role of Jim Bolger. Comments on the reaction of Lands and Survey and the Forest Service. Recalls Koro Wetere signing an application to log 600 hectares in the Ketetahi Block. Describes how this sparked a snap debate in Parliament and Prime Minister David Lange asked Mr Wetere to overturn the decision. Comments that the park is still not gazetted as a Forest Park. Mentions disappointment in DOC. Discusses the ecological diversity of the Tongariro Forest, the decline of the kiwi and the strategy for the Save the Kiwi campaign. Describes becoming President of Forest and Bird and his paid work which pays for his environmental work. Comments on his use of conflict resolution. Mentions the Kaimanawa horse issue. Comments on the government of Jenny Shipley, beech logging, Tony Ryall and the intention to sell Timberlands. Discusses the battle to have more water released into the Whanganui and Whakapapa Rivers and diverse groups involved in the Whanganui River Flows Campaign. Mentions Federated Farmers, Rotary, Wanganui Chamber of Commerce, Fish and Game, the Maruia Society and recreationalists. Comments on the differing approach by Maori. Describes the case against Electricorp, the Electricorp loss, their taking of the case to the Planning Tribunal and the High Court where it failed. Mentions that Electricorp CEO Rod Deane wanted to take the case to the Privy Council. Comments on the stress caused by the case. Explains his motivation in being a conservationist. Discusses environmental activism and the information and communication explosion in the 1980s and 1990s. Interviewer(s) - Jonathan Kennett Quantity: 3 C60 cassette(s). 1 printed abstract(s) OHA-2955. 1 interview(s). 3 Hours Duration. Finding Aids: Abstract Available - abstracting complete. Colour photograph of Keith Chapple